Method and system for delivery of goods

ABSTRACT

The present publication discloses a method and system for delivering goods from main system (S 1 ) via subsystem (S 2 ) to an end address (D 1 -D n ) of the customer ( 3 ). According to the invention the end address (D 1 -D n ) of the customer ( 3 ) is enquired ( 4 ) from the customer via telecommunications network by a multiple choice enquiry ( 4 ), the end address (D 1 -D n ) selected by the customer is received ( 5 ) and the goods are delivered to the selected end address (D 1 -D n ).

The present invention relates to a method, according to the preamble ofClaim 1, for delivering of goods.

The invention also relates to a system, according to Claim 8.

Methods and systems of this kind are used, for example, for deliveringof goods for customers.

According to the prior art, delivery of goods is based on apredetermined sending address, which is static for each person.

However, in the modern life people have several actual addresses likehome address, working address, summer home address etc. The presentsystems send goods to one of the static addresses and at most checks ifthe person is in this address. For example a package sent from Finlandto UK to a predetermined mailing address (also end address in thisdocument) will be first received by a Finnish post office. From thisoffice it will be delivered to the international department and furthercollected to group of packages heading to UK. In the UK the package willfirst reach a sorting office and will be sent in accordance with themailing address to the corresponding branch post office. The branch postoffice delivers the package to the mailing address determined in thepackage. By this present method occur several false delivery attempts.This causes trouble both for the delivery company and for the customerin form of additional costs and unnecessary delivery attempts have alsoa negative ecological effect in form of increased carbon emissions.

The invention is intended to eliminate the problems of the prior artdisclosed above and for this purpose create an entirely new type ofmethod and system for delivery of goods.

The invention is based on using the mobile terminal of the client as avirtual address and using an enquiry to this terminal for determiningthe real destination address for the goods.

More specifically, the method according to the invention ischaracterized by what is stated in the characterizing portion of Claim1.

The system according to the invention is, in turn, characterized by whatis stated in the characterizing portion of Claim 8.

Considerable advantages are gained with the aid of the invention.

The solution facilitates a dynamic address for the customer which isconstantly updated. By this feature essential cost savings are gained inthe delivery organization side. As a consequence also the customerprises can be reduced.

The delivery firm obtains always an updated actual delivery addresswithout changing the general delivery system. This an essentialadvantage because delivery systems like mailing systems and courierservices are based on highly standardized solutions where there is noroom for major system changes.

In the following, the invention is examined with the aid of examples andwith reference to the accompanying drawing.

FIG. 1 shows schematically a solution according to the invention.

The following terms are used in combination with the reference numerals:

-   1 sorting office-   2 branch post office-   3 client, clients mobile terminal-   4 delivery address enquiry-   5 delivery address information-   6 end delivery of the product-   7 address information-   8 intermediate delivery of the product-   S₁ main delivery system-   S₂ delivery subsystem-   S₃ delivery system end level-   D₁-D_(n) end delivery addresses-   t₁ product delivery start time-   t₂ intermediate product delivery time-   t₃ product end delivery time

According to FIG. 1, in the prior art delivery systems the goods wouldhave been delivered front the system S₁ through system S₂ to one of thedestination addresses D₁-D_(n) in the end address system S₃ inaccordance with one address information defined before the deliveryprocess.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the sorting office 1sends information to the branch post office 2 of a package that will besent to a customer. This information will be sent in accordance with theinvention e.g., electronically via telecommunication network. For thispurpose may be used the internal telecommunication network of thedelivery organization, external telephone network, internet etc. Thetelecommunications protocol may be e-mail, SMS, packet-switched dataetc.

The branch office 2 will send an enquiry 4 to the customer for which oneof the possible delivery addresses the customer wants to receive thepackage. This information will be sent in accordance with the inventione.g., electronically via telecommunication network. For this purpose maybe used telephone network, internet network etc. or anothertelecommunications network with adequate geographical and customcoverage. The telecommunications protocol may be e-mail, SMS,packet-switched data etc.

The customer replies to the enquiry, whereafter the actual package issent from the sorting office 1 to the branch post office 2 and fromthere to the customer.

As an alternative embodiment of the invention, if it turns out from theanswer 5 to the enquiry 4 that the client 3 is close to his own branchpost office 1 the delivery can be sent to another branch post office.Further, if it turns out from the answer 5 to the enquiry 4 that theclient is on holidays, the delivery may be delayed. This procedure mightneed a multiple step inquiry/reply process, and in this case inaccordance with the invention so called dynamic Dialogue Matrix (DDM,will be described later) may be used for managing the multistepdialogue.

In accordance with one embodiment of the invention the sorting office 1starts delivering the goods at time t₁ by all intermediate good delivery8 to a branch post office 2 based on the general delivery address datalike town or area. When the delivered goods arrive to the branch office2 the system makes an end address enquiry 4 to the client's terminal 3via telecommunications network. The enquiry 4 can be made e.g. as a textmessage (e.g. SMS) where the client is allowed to select from multipledestination addressed D₁-D_(n). The address information 7 relating toeach customer is stored in the system. The enquiry 4 may be e.g. such atext message where the suitable end address D₁-D_(n) can be selected asa single character (1, 2, 3, A, B, C . . . ) from the terminal's 3keyboard. In other words the enquiry may be a multiple choice enquiry.These addresses D₁-D_(n) are stored in the delivery systems database andcan be dynamically updated during enquiries for example allowing for theclient one additional selection “none of the listed addresses” andenquiring the content of the new address in a new message which will beupdated into the system's database. After reception of the deliveryaddress information 5 the goods will be delivered to selected correctend address of the multiple end addresses D₁-D_(n). The delivery of thegoods happens at time t₃.

The intelligence of the system is typically positioned in the mainsystem S₁ or subsystem. S₂.

Alternatively, in accordance with the invention the delivery addressenquiry 4 can be made also from the main delivery system S₁ and in thiscase the only address the system needs is the identity of the mobileterminal 3. In this case S₁ sends the end address information viatelecommunications network also to S₂ whereby the information delay ofthe prior art between t₁ and t₂ may be avoided almost completely.

The terminal 3 is typically a mobile phone but may be also be a palmtopor laptop computer or their equivalent.

The telecommunications protocol is typically SMS, but the invention canbe used also with other protocols like e-mail, push-email etc.

The location of the mobile terminal can be also used as a preliminaryinformation of the client to deliver the goods to a correct deliverysubsystem S₂ or even to a correct end address D₁-D_(n).

The method and system according to the invention are implemented, withthe aid of at least one computer, in a telecommunications network.

For processing and managing enquiries 4 and corresponding replies 5 canbe used so called dynamic dialogue matrix DDM invented and developed bythe applicant of this document. For example in document EP1939770 isdescribed a solutions where client such replies are managed, when aclient has been given a number of questions and the client is using SMStext messages or similar technology in which a reply does notautomatically include an explicit reference to the inquiry. Thepublication presents a solution using dynamic dialog matrices. Aninquiry always includes some kind of receiver's address oridentification. In the SMS text message case that is so called Bsubscriber's number. On the other hand, sender's A subscriber's numberor Calling Line Identity (CLI), or similar identification is alsoattached to each text message. If a mediator service that sendsinquiries to a client, uses different A subscriber numbers in differentinquires, it is possible to differentiate between answers based on whichnumber the client is sending replies to. Using a dialog matrix, amediator keeps track on inquires and answers. In the matrix, there iscolumn for each client and a row for each A subscriber number themediator is using. After sending all inquiry from a certain A subscribernumber to a client, the status and the reply is stored in thecorresponding shell of the matrix. As a result, the mediator is able tofind out whether the client has replied to a certain inquiry and whatthe answer was.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A delivery service operation methodcomprising: storing, in a computer, for each of a plurality of deliveryservice customers: at least one communication address for communicatingwith a respective mobile terminal of the customer over atelecommunication network; and a set of two or more different deliveryaddresses, each delivery address indicating a delivery location; foreach of a plurality of delivery items to be delivered by the deliveryservice, wherein each delivery item is associated with a respectiverecipient who is one of the plurality of delivery service customers:transferring the delivery item from a sorting office to a branch officeassociated with the recipient; using the computer to send an inquiry tothe mobile terminal of the recipient over the telecommunication network,the inquiry being a text message, wherein the inquiry text messagecomprises a listing of two or more of the stored different deliveryaddresses for the recipient that receives the inquiry message;receiving, from the recipient's mobile terminal, a text message replywhich comprises a selection of one of the listed delivery addressesselected by the recipient on their mobile terminal; and delivering thedelivery item by the delivery service to the delivery location indicatedby the delivery address corresponding to the selection included in thereply text message, wherein each text inquiry message and correspondingtext reply message share an identification, whereby, for each text replymessage received, the corresponding text inquiry message can beidentified.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising using multipletext inquiry-reply pairs to determine at least one of the deliveryaddresses for the delivery item and the branch office associated withthe recipient.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising using adetermined location of the recipient's mobile terminal to determinewhich of multiple branch offices the delivery item is to be delivered tofrom the sorting office.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein each listeddelivery addresses is listed with a corresponding selection symbol thatis one character in length.
 5. A data processing system comprising: acomputer which stores a database which includes, for each of a pluralityof delivery service customers: at least one communication address forcommunicating with a respective mobile terminal of the customer over atelecommunication network; a set of two or more different deliveryaddresses, each delivery address indicating a delivery location; whereinthe data processing system controls operation of a delivery service,wherein the operation comprises: for each of a plurality of deliveryitems, each of which being associated with a respective recipient who isone of the plurality of delivery service customers: the data processingsystem sending instructions, which cause transferal of the delivery itemfrom a sorting office to a branch office associated with the recipient;the data processing system sending a text message inquiry to the mobileterminal of the recipient over the telecommunication network, whereinthe text message inquiry comprises a listing of two or more of thestored different delivery addresses for the recipient that receives theinquiry text message, wherein the listed two or more of the storeddifferent delivery addresses are provided in the inquiry text message;the data processing system receiving, from the recipient's mobileterminal of the recipient, a reply text message which comprises aselection of one of the listed delivery addresses selected by therecipient on their mobile terminal, the reply text message beingreceived over the telecommunication network; and the data processingsystem sending instructions which cause delivery of the delivery item bythe delivery service to the delivery location indicated by the deliveryaddress corresponding to the selection included in the reply textmessage, wherein each inquiry text message and corresponding reply textmessage share an identification, whereby, for each reply text messagereceived, the corresponding inquiry text can be identified.
 6. The dataprocessing system of claim 5, wherein the data processing system usesmultiple inquiry-reply text message pairs to determine at least one ofthe delivery addresses for the delivery item and the branch officeassociated with the recipient.
 7. The data processing system of claim 5,wherein the data processing system uses a determined location of therecipient's mobile terminal to determine which of multiple branchoffices the delivery item is to be delivered to from the sorting office.8. The data processing system of claim 5, wherein each listed deliveryaddresses is listed with a corresponding selection symbol that is onecharacter in length.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the text messagesare sent using a telecommunication protocol that is Short MessageService Protocol.
 10. The system of claim 5, wherein the text messagesare sent using a telecommunication protocol that is Short MessageService Protocol.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein the inquiry and thereply text messages are Short Message Service messages.
 12. The systemof claim 5, wherein the inquiry and the reply text messages are ShortMessage Service messages.